Porgy and Bess

US (1959): Musical/Romance/Drama

A stellar line-up of African-American actors and musical stars helped to bring DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin's classic operetta to this screen in this lavishly-produced adaptation. Porgy (Sidney Poitier) is a crippled man living in the shantytown of Catfish Row who has fallen in love with Bess (Dorothy Dandridge), a beautiful but troubled woman addicted to drugs. Bess is already being courted by several men, including Crown (Brock Peters), a muscular laborer, and Sportin' Life (Sammy Davis, Jr.), a sharp-suited hipster who deals narcotics. Crown gets in a fist fight with Robbins (Joel Fluellen) and ends up killing him; Crown goes on the lam, and Bess, needing companionship, takes up with Porgy. However, Crown soon returns, and Porgy kills him in a subsequent altercation, forcing him to hide from the police. Meanwhile, the fickle Bess follows Sportin' Life in search of the bright lights of New York City.

Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Ivan Dixon, and Clarence Muse also highlight the cast; opera singer Robert McFerrin (father of pop singer and composer Bobby McFerrin) provided the singing voice of Porgy, and the New York City Opera's Adele Addison dubbed in Bess' musical numbers. (Goldwyn/Columbia) (Mark Deming, All Movie Guide)

The Gershwin family was strongly disapproved of the film, largely because it was not staged as a true opera with all the recitative performed musically, and also because the two leads had their singing voices dubbed. The film's original director, Rouben Mamoulian, wanted to film on location, but producer Samuel Goldwyn refused and insisted on using sound stages. When a mysterious fire broke out and destroyed the sets, Mamoulian again requested that the film be made on location. Enraged, Goldwyn felt that Mamoulian was taking advantage of a misfortune, promptly fired him, and hired Otto Preminger, who made the film on sound stages in Hollywood. The film is currently withheld from release because of actions by both the Gershwin and Goldwyn estates, as neither Samuel Goldwyn nor the Gershwin family were satisfied with the film. (IMDb)

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4 nominations, 1 Award